Question about Face Shape(cheekbones)

[Lina Cloudring]

I've noticed this with every viewer i've been using, wondering if anyone knows how to fix.

half the time, depending on how i zoom in on or out on my camera, the cheekbones of my avatar and other people's avatar is kind of chunky and not smooth,

does anyone know what i'm talking about? if you do, do you know a fix for it? it makes the avatar look really ugly around the face when the cheeks are sticking out like that

[Clarissa Lowell]

Do you have any pix you could post?

Without seeing the problem I can answer in a general type of way.

This is something that's a quirk with the mesh. I don't know that it can be completely avoided, at least, from certain angles, especially overhead while zoomed in extremely. (Then again how often does that happen?)

But it can be lessened. Here are some suggestions. 

Use the slider to make the lower part of the face less sunken. Examine the face from all angles during and after making this adjustment. Adjust again as necessary. Keep more than one copy, but name the one you like best something you'll remember. One way is to put a date on the final copy. (Final as in, for now.) 

This will pad the face a little. Making the lower part of the face too sunken may seem slim and glamorous at first, but it can make the face look a bit like a skull.  Also, those sharp corners of the cheekbones will poke out more. 

You might even use the jowl slider a little bit, depending on the rest of the face. Use this slider sparingly. In fact, make all adjustments a couple of degrees at a time, in sensitive parts of the mesh like this. The cheekbones are tricky.

Experiment with head shapes. The cheekbones might appear too bulky because they simply are not meshing, scuse the pun, with the rest of the face structure. Things like flattening the head shape, a little bit, or making the jawline softer could help. 

After that, experiment with making the cheekbones less high or less large.

It's not an easy part of the face to build. 

 

[Lina Cloudring]

Thanks for the detailed reply Clarissa, below are the pics I took to better explain what I mean.

Often times when I look at my avatar my face will just turn out like this, and it seems like the cheekbone lines are really sticking out

 

But sometimes it'll look like how it is supposed to, which is like this, all smooth

 

[Charolotte Caxton]

Hi, Lina. Do you see what the main difference is between your two examples? Lighting. Just as in real life, the lighting that is on and around our faces will produce or not produce shadows with varying results. That is why your avatars face will look different at different times even though you didn't change anything about your facial structure. Think about real life model photoshoots, images of bright lights come to mind. Depending on the positioning, color and intensity of the lighting, your face will look different at different times in different situations. Many avatars will not leave their homes without a face light. They come in various degrees of intensity and colors, you can even make your own. Many of them are free and are often included with certain hairs and skins. Some are adjustable, in that you can change brightness and color with an easy to use hud. You can also play with your windlight settings, if you are in Viewer 2 and some other tpv. Caliah is an available preset in V2 and will usually give you good effects for photoshoots and such, but you can experiment with the settings yourself and see what suits you best. So, to answer your question, your cheeks will look different at different times depending on the angle of your view and the shadows cast by lighting. You can adjust the lights you have shining directly on your face, you can adjust your environments lighting, or both! Hope this helps, there is literally tons of info out there about lighting and shadows, try looking up inworld photography, photoshoots, and facelights. Torley has a bunch if info about those subjects. Your face looks cute, if you do try adjusting your facial structure, make sure you save a copy of your shape first! Smiles, Charolotte.

[Marianne Little]

I wonder if it's a light problem. The default windlight settings creates sharp shadows over the face, the triangular light spots can make the cheekbones look sharper.

In your second pictures, the light is more soft. Do you use the default light? I always switch to a windlight setting by Ana Lutetia, or make my own windlight setting as explained here: http://juicybomb.com/2010/04/22/gogos-updated-windlight-tutorial/

[Lina Cloudring]

thanks for all the replies, extremely helpful.

as it seems it really seems to be lighting problem, which is what i initially thought just that to me it almost seems like the facial structures changes in shape almost, which is why I had doubts.

I'm going to try all the things you guys suggested, thanks a lot

[Bree Giffen]

From the pictures I agree with everyone saying it's a lighting issue. In windlight you can set your entire day to just one windlight setting. That's what I did. I never look bad!

But if your avatar is changing shape as you zoom in and out it might also be a graphics setting too. Under the preferences for graphics you should set the mesh detail of avatars to high.

Also, you shoudl press ctrl-9 to reset your camera zoom. If you press ctrl-0 to zoom in and forget to reset it, when you zoom out using just your mouse the avatar may become deformed.

[Josh Susanto]

Some face shapes are redundant with some face textures.

 

[Charolotte Caxton]

Hi Josh, could you elaborate please? I'm not being persnickety, I'm honestly curious because I used to have the same concerns as the OP and if you know something I don't, I would like to know. Thanks.

[Josh Susanto]

It may not be exactly the same problem, but imagine this:

One RL model gets her face made up in such a way as to enhance the appearance of cheekbones, which, in her case, are average or even less defined.

Another model gets little or nothing in the way of cheekbone-enhancing makeup because she has incredibly well-defined cheek bones.

NOW...

Take the make up job off the first model and put it, unmodified, onto the second model.

What can we expect?

[Charolotte Caxton]

Hey Josh, thanks for answering.

Im sorry, I'm still not following.

The answer to your riddle would be, enhanced cheeks that don't need to be enhanced therefore producing strange results?

Are you saying then that some shapes are created with say, prominent cheekbones, for example, and some skins are made to have prominent cheekbones, or whatever, and when these two are combined the result is enhanced enhanced cheekbones?

I suppose if that is what you are saying then perhaps I might be able to imagine that, but its hurting my head.

[Storm Clarence]

Perhaps a foolish question; would not a 'facelight' eliminate any shadows created by some lighting themes?

The facelight does not have to light up Times Square, but a low-illuminated facelight; and all of about 3 minutes to build.

[Bree Giffen]

With a facelight you are selfishly lighting yourself only and leaving others in your view to appear badly. With windlight you can reap the rewards with everyone. A good windlight setting is a facelight for everyone including yourself.

[Storm Clarence]

I thought so.  I always come up a little short in these girly threads.  My cheeks are fine.  

[Charolotte Caxton]

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Bree Giffen wrote:

With a facelight you are selfishly lighting yourself only and leaving others in your view to appear badly. With windlight you can reap the rewards with everyone. A good windlight setting is a facelight for everyone including yourself.

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That's a great point you make, Bree.